Industrial automation systems can perform various processes to produce desired products or processed materials. An industrial control system can comprise various industrial devices, industrial processes, other industrial assets, and network-related assets (e.g., communication network devices and software).
Industrial controllers and their associated input/output (I/O) devices can be useful to the operation of modern industrial automation systems. These industrial controllers can interact with field devices on the plant floor to control automated processes relating to such objectives as product manufacture, material handling, batch processing, supervisory control, and other such applications. Industrial controllers can store and execute user-defined control programs to effect decision-making in connection with the controlled process. Such programs can include, but are not limited to, ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, structured text, or other such programming structures. In general, industrial controllers can read input data from sensors and metering devices that can provide discreet and telemetric data regarding one or more states of the controlled system, and can generate control outputs based on these inputs in accordance with the user-defined program.
To facilitate operation of an industrial automation system, a design and/or control platform can be employed to facilitate the design, control, and/or maintenance of the industrial automation system. Some design and/or control platforms can allow for the design, programming, or configuring of industrial devices or other components relating to an industrial automation system (e.g., controllers, HMIs, applications, libraries, objects, etc.).
The above-described description is merely intended to provide a contextual overview relating to industrial automation systems, and is not intended to be exhaustive.